The EmbroideressSunday, September 14, 2003
CONFESSION AND SAMPLER STORY
The Beds of Roses Sampler that finally went on sale in our webcatalog a week ago has a long history.
Some 10 years ago, I found a band of barley twist meanders and roses on a 17th century sampler at the Victoria & Albert Museum. I fell in love with this little band in mossy green and soft rose and over the years I always wanted to design a sampler including this band.
I kept on collecting floral bands to complement the first band and then searched out a whitework band with a floral motif and fell in love with a diabolically difficult whitework alphabet. Then I sought text that would be appropriate. What better than a bit of love fluff from an Elizabethan poet "I will make thee beds of roses and a thousand fragrant posies"?
Once I had the sampler designed - what to do with it? First a sampler guild considered it for a workshop but declined. Then I taught it at CATS three years ago. After that students and others who saw the sampler kept asking when it would be published for sale. Most classes I teach need the booklets edited and adjusted for stitchers to use sans tutor.
About this time, the model went missing so publishing it was out of the question as I didn't have time to restitch a model. Hey - some of this is really picky over one.
I kept saying "soon, soon, soon" not wanting to confess I couldn't find the model. Then, will wonders never cease, a few days ago I found the model where it had not been removed from a set of display boards we had used at a show two years ago. And now I can get on with work on a companion piece for it. I have the text and a nice thistle band in mind. Watch this space!
The Beds of Roses Sampler that finally went on sale in our webcatalog a week ago has a long history.
Some 10 years ago, I found a band of barley twist meanders and roses on a 17th century sampler at the Victoria & Albert Museum. I fell in love with this little band in mossy green and soft rose and over the years I always wanted to design a sampler including this band.
I kept on collecting floral bands to complement the first band and then searched out a whitework band with a floral motif and fell in love with a diabolically difficult whitework alphabet. Then I sought text that would be appropriate. What better than a bit of love fluff from an Elizabethan poet "I will make thee beds of roses and a thousand fragrant posies"?
Once I had the sampler designed - what to do with it? First a sampler guild considered it for a workshop but declined. Then I taught it at CATS three years ago. After that students and others who saw the sampler kept asking when it would be published for sale. Most classes I teach need the booklets edited and adjusted for stitchers to use sans tutor.
About this time, the model went missing so publishing it was out of the question as I didn't have time to restitch a model. Hey - some of this is really picky over one.
I kept saying "soon, soon, soon" not wanting to confess I couldn't find the model. Then, will wonders never cease, a few days ago I found the model where it had not been removed from a set of display boards we had used at a show two years ago. And now I can get on with work on a companion piece for it. I have the text and a nice thistle band in mind. Watch this space!
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